Reader, if you have ever been in Spain, you may have seen the Xerez or sherry wine brought from the mountains to be put into the cask.

A raw goat-skin, with the neck-part and the four legs sewed up, forms a leathern bag, containing perhaps from fifteen to twenty gallons.

This is the load of one man, who brings it down on his shoulder exposed to the burning rays of the sun.

When it arrives, it is thrown down on the sand, to swelter in the heat with the rest, and remains there probably for days before it is transferred into the cask.

It is this proceeding which gives to sherry that peculiar leather twang which distinguishes it from other wines--a twang easy to imitate by throwing into a cask of Cape wine a pair of old boots, and allowing them to remain a proper time.